WAHHABI ISLAM AND THE GULF

The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were a turbulent time for
Arabia in general and for the gulf in particular. To the southeast, the
Al Said of Oman were extending their influence northward, and from Iraq
the Ottoman Turks were extending their influence southward. From the
east, both the Iranians and the British were becoming increasingly
involved in Arab affairs.

The most significant development in the region, however, was the
Wahhabi movement. The name Wahhabi derived from Muhammad ibn
Abd al Wahhab, who died in 1792. He grew up in an oasis town in central
Arabia where he studied Hanbali law, usually considered the strictest of
Islamic legal schools, with his grandfather. While still a young man, he
left home and continued his studies in Medina and then in Iraq and Iran.

When he returned from Iran to Arabia in the late 1730s, he attacked
as idolatry many of the customs followed by tribes in the area who
venerated rocks and trees. He extended his criticism to practices of the
Twelver Shia, such as veneration of the tombs of holy men. He focused on
the central Muslim principle that there is only one God and that this
God does not share his divinity with anyone. From this principle, his
students began to refer to themselves as muwahhidun (sing., muwahhid),
or "unitarians." Their detractors referred to them as
"Wahhabis."

Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab considered himself a reformer and looked
for a political figure to give his ideas a wider audience. He found this
person in Muhammad ibn Saud, the amir of Ad Diriyah, a small town near Riyadh. In 1744 the two
swore a traditional Muslim pledge in which they promised to work
together to establish a new state (which later became present-day Saudi
Arabia) based on Islamic principles. The limited but successful military
campaigns of Muhammad ibn Saud caused Arabs from all over the peninsula
to feel the impact of Wahhabi ideas.

The Wahhabis became known for a fanaticism similar to that of the
early Kharijites. This fanaticism helped to intensify conflicts in the
gulf. Whereas tribes from the interior had always raided settled
communities along the coast, the Wahhabi faith provided them with a
justification for continuing these incursions to spread true Islam.
Accordingly, in the nineteenth century Wahhabi tribes, under the
leadership of the Al Saud, moved at various times against Kuwait,
Bahrain, and Oman. In Oman, the Wahhabi faith created internal
dissension as well as an external menace because it proved popular with
some of the Ibadi tribes in the Omani interior.

Wahhabi thought has had a special impact on the history of Qatar.
Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab's ideas proved popular among many of the
peninsula tribes, including the Al Thani clan, before the Al Khalifa
attempted to take over the area from Bahrain at the beginning of the
nineteenth century. As a result, Wahhabi beliefs motivated Al Thani
efforts to resist the attempt of the Al Khalifa, who rejected Wahhabism,
to gain control of the peninsula. In the early 1990s, Wahhabism
distinguished Qatar religiously from its neighbors.

Wahhabi fervor was also significant in the history of the present-day
UAE. The Qawasim tribes that had controlled the area since the
eighteenth century adapted Wahhabi ideas and transferred the movement's
religious enthusiasm to the piracy in which they had traditionally
engaged. Whereas Wahhabi thought opposed all that was not orthodox in
Islam, it particularly opposed non-Muslim elements such as the
increasing European presence in the Persian Gulf.